Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1887-11-10
ARTEMUS WARDS FUNNY LETTER
Written to a Little Girl at Elmira, n. Y. D
Years loo

|
| Years Ago
MY DEAR AMELIA cannot tell you
how much miss you. 1t seems as though
L had lost all my relatives, including my
grandmother and the cooking stove. Why
didn't put you In bottle and bring
you down here with me? But am always
forgetting something. The other day /
went off and forgot my Aunt Sarah, and
she's good deal bigger than you are.
| Mr.. Ramsey is also very forgetful man.
He frequently goes off and forgets his
washerwoman. Mr.. Ramsey is very fine
| looking man. He reminds me of Mr..
Green, the Maiden murderer. When Mr..
| Ramsey goes to the penitentiary, which
will be very soon, we must send him
doughnuts, magazines and other literary
documents. Mr.. Ramsey can read print
very WELL
like you very much. Ishould like you
just as well if you were II years older. /
am very singular about some things. You
spoke to me about boy who is my rival.
should feel very sorry to kill that boy,
but lie may drive me to it. am in hopes
that he will take himself into a prema-
ture tomb-that he will choke himself
with large slice of pudding, but if he
does neither shall feel forced to load
him with chains and read all my lectures
to him. That will finish him. His boots
may remain, but the rest will have per-
ished miserably long ere get through
You must be a good little girl, and
| always mind your mother. Never let
your excellent mother feel sorry that she
is acquainted with you. If it hadn't
been for her you might have crowned in
a soup plate long ago. And if you hadn't
EoI 4
Turkey with the Turkeys. In fact my
dear Amelia, so conduct yourself that
even on dark AMI rainy days the bright
sun May shine wherever you are, and that
the stars (which are next to the sun in
brightness) may never flash too brightly
but that you can always look steadily
and hopefully towards them.
Snowsheds TO cover the railway track
have been built at points on the Central
Pacific road where il crosses the Sierra.
AS the trains boun3 east leave Euigsant
gap they run th Dugh one continuous
shed for thirty-five miles The purpose
of the sheds is to drevent the track being
buried under falling and drifting snow.
They secure this end but are themselves
the occasion of great inconvenience, such
as the noise, the loss of view, and the
combining of the smoke to the train.
There is nothing peculiar in the con-
struction of these snebs, which have only
to support the burden of the snow. But
on the line of the Canadian Pacific where
the road crosses the Rocky mountains,
sheds of a different construction are
needed. Before the road was completed,
observations in the noun tains showed
the avalanches must be provided against.
A single avalanch covered the track for a
22istance Of 1900 feet and to the depth
of so feet. Tine result of these observa
tons was that the company built four
and half miles of snow sheds at an en-
ormous expense. Thd sheds are con-
structed as follows:
On the high side of the mountain slope
a crib filled with stones is constructed.
Along the entire length of the shed and
on the opposite side of the track tim
Der trestle is erected, strong timber
beams are laid from the top of the crib
work to the top of the trestle four feet
apart, and at an angle representing tee
slope of the mountain as nearly as pos
sible. These are covered over with four
inch planking and the beams are braced
on either side from the trestle and from
the crib. The coqering is placed at such
height as to give twenty one feet head
way from the under side of the beam to
the center of the track. The longest of
these sheds is 300 feet.
Goreeous Texans i'm Washington.